Doctor Who: The Pyramid at the End of the World.

Two episodes of build up….this better have a good ending.

So this episode stocks more mystery on the monks and where they come from. Apparently, their form is determined by those viewing them and they can’t do anything unless invited to do so.

Again, it’s getting a bit political with the idea of giving away your freedom for fear of the alternative narrative given to you by those asking for it.

This episode is the product of a collaboration between Steven Moffatt and Peter Harness, with the influence of both coming through.

It focuses on an otherwise mundane task leading to the end of world, as the dad from My Parents are Aliens is so hungover that he makes a super-virus instead of a crop control gas.

So yeah “don’t drink and science” is the overall message of this episode.

I do like that the ironic twist is that it’s actually the Doctor’s actions that end up damning the world to monk control. Him being trapped in the exploding lab was the only reason that Bill surrendered to them in the end.  It’s a god switch up, especially as it follows the monk’s dooms day clock reversing, leading us to think that the treat has been eliminated.

Bill does come across as a bit selfish, being legitimately willing to sacrifice the world to save one man. But I do think that this will feed into the overall story arc. There have been hints that she (and her late mother) are more than they seems and are connected to Doctor in some other way. Since Missy is returning proper next week, it’s probably that the Bill mystery is far more important than the vault arc.

On that point, it could still be that Missy is behind the whole monk plot. By the looks of the trailer, agreeing to their help seems to have created a parallel version of Earth.

The Executioners made clear that Missy’s prison cell (the vault) is shielded from everything including time, so she’d presumably be unaffected by changes to the time line. She also mentions that someone would have had to open the door for the monks to get to Earth.  This could easily have been the Master.

But getting back to this episode, it’s good, if a little slow in places. It sets up the stakes well…again. So yeah…not bad.

Doctor Who; The Zygon Invasion Part 2

Stop trying to make this show about everything! For Pete sake; was this salvaged from a Gene Rodenberry script?

 

The Doctor, Clara and Osgood looking bored....like the audience

Yes IS are bad. Trouble is I came here to watch some aliens shoot lightning at a Scottish guy who’s wearing sunglasses in the dark.

Up until this point, this series has been in the category of “a tad too wordy.” This episode crosses the line into stage play levels of dialogue. I’m not looking for blockbuster explosions here, but there’s a talking scene (without so much as some music) that feels like it goes on forever. Incidentally, during this scene, the Doctor makes the same point about 3 times. I’m no expert, but I think they could have shaved some time off that scene, by having him make it once.

Oh, and that point that he makes; we should just try to talk and negotiate to avoid more killing. If we all just learnt to get along, we’d all be safe and sound.

Thank you Mr Harness and Mr Moffatt; but please explain further this “negotiation” thing of which you speak; I don’t think we’ve ever heard of it.

I get that there are children watching this and we have to keep the more weighty messages simple, but does it have to come at this cost? The message of this episode is so patronising; everyone just sit down and talk and work this out. I think the real situation that this is drawn from might be a little more complex than that.

What would have been so wrong with giving the Zygons a religious motivation and highlighting the need to end religious influence over politics in all corners of the Earth? What would have been so wrong with suggesting that UNIT was trying to control the Zygon population and caused an uprising?

The revealed Zygon motivation: they’re just angry young people with no long-term plan. Because that’s what they needed to do, patronise the younger audience too.

The one good thing about the episode is the casual reveal that this is the sixteenth time that this has happened and the Doctor has been wiping everyone’s memories. I mean, it’s only good given that the comical delivery of the line by Capaldi makes you forget what a stupid solution it is.

And finally, “what matters is that Osgood lives.”

Go away; I’m fighting not to type some profanity here. I’ve always like the way that Moffatt gives characters the George RR Martin treatment and this line of fan pandering is really unacceptable.

Why should I care about any character in this show, when I know that death isn’t the end for them? I mean unless they’re Danny Pink (because it sucks to be Danny Pink). As long as the fans moan enough, they’ll be back.

This episode is disappointing, patronising and the exact thing that nearly sank Star Trek the Next Generation.

Doctor Who: the Zygon Invasion

Peter Harness presents 24, WITH ALIENS!!

A consistent problem with this series format has been the decision to make every episode a two-parter. While it gives Moffat and his team more time to develop story, it has lead to 30 minutes of snoozing for every opening episode.

Case in point, The Zygon Invasion should be an all out action episode, but Harness has to stretch it to two making it entirely too wordy for a family show. Other issues show themselves through this problem; the world is in peril so the Doctor abandons the TARDIS for the far slower UNIT plane, with some stupid explanation. He could get inside the Zygon base in a matter of seconds in his ship, but he decides to take a plane for the sake of meeting the episode’s run time.

Look, I’m sure that this is going to pay off in next week’s episode, but I’m really tired of that being the way it is. Why should I, or any loyal viewer, have to sit through a load of set-up lines and plots that are going to end up making up 50% of the series? The stupid thing is that this is the mid point of the series and actually the ideal place for a two-parter. But as it happens, I’m now so fed up “to be continued” that I can’t tell you whether or not the episode suffers majorly for this issue.

No, scratch that actually I can tell you; I would not be complaining about the two-part nature of this episode, were it an isolated incident. Harness does everything right for a continuing story; he sets up the stakes, he delivers a cliff-hanger and he establishes the villains. But the whole thing is undermined by the notion that you as a viewer are just going through the motions; it makes it task to sit through the episode.

I take major exception with some other issues in the episode too. Osgood is back, which I see as an incredibly cowardly move by Moffat. In American TV shows like Arrow, Smallville and Star Trek, titular and popular characters have what are referred to as character shields. This basically means that an extra can be killed with one punch, but Oliver Queen can get impaled and survive (spoiler alert by the way). I didn’t expect such lazy fan-pandering from Moffat and I was very disappointed when it was announced that Osgood would be returning. This isn’t because I didn’t like her, but precisely because I did like her. Killing off a character you like is a really good way to keep the audience emotionally involved (look at Game of Thrones).  Aside from that there’s a pretty significant alteration to the way that the Zygon abilities operate that’s also given a premium BS explanation.

But, like I said, these are things I could probably get over were I not aware of the annoyingness of the format.

Not really much else to say; ably performed by the cast and crew; not a bad episode by any stretch, but suffering for the larger decisions at play.

Doctor Who: Kill the Moon

So something that sits around in space just being there is actually a living creature…might have said this before, but yeah Doctor Who has already done this one. We’re moving from familiarity to a solid “meh” reaction.

The main difference that Peter Harness throws is the moral dilemma about whether it’s acceptable to kill such a creature when it’s hatching/migration threatens to kill all of humanity.

The spiders of the trailer make a surprisingly small appearance, which could be the product of a limited special effects budget or that they’re a bit of a red herring. Either way, the lack of meaningful villains in this series is starting to get to me.

The other story running through this episode is that of the Doctor and Clara clashing. It’s unusual, after years of Tennant and Smith (Doctors who had to throw their two cents into everything) to see the new Doctor sitting on the fence and letting humanity decide.

The supporting cast isn’t exactly fleshed out. They seem to be a collection of redshirts and Hermione Norris’s Lundvik who’s an angry woman with a several bombs.

Clara’s anger (a result of having enough of the Doctor’s new detached attitude) seems like a significant development in whether or not she’ll be around next series. Given that she has a heart-to-heart with Danny after, suggests it’s something that’s been bothering her for a while. Like Amy and Rory having marital problems, it would have been better of we’d seen this rather than been told about it after. Danny saying “it happened, didn’t it” seems a bit stupid. As I have always said, I like the character development to happen on screen.

Oh and the alien that was inside Moon/Egg laying another Moon/Egg (thus resolving the problem – and meaning there was never a threat to start with) is really stupid.

Other than that, this episode is serviceable and has a few good scares, especially for sufferers of arachnophobia.